UC-NRLF 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 
A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 


ALTER  JAMES  DODD 


A  BI  °HICAL  SKETCH 


BY  J 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 


BY  JOHN  MACY 

With  Illustrations 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

tCIje  JXitocri'ifce  35rr«  CamUribce 

1918 


COPYRIGHT,   1918,  BY  JOHN  MACY 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 

Published  September  iqi8 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

WALTER  JAMES  DODD    ....         Frontispiece 
DODD  AS  A  YOUNG  MAN        .       .       .       ...       20 

THE  BULFINCH  FRONT  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS 
GENERAL  HOSPITAL 40 

DODD  IN  LONDON,  1915         .       .       .       .       .       56 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

i 

WALTER  DODD'S  life  was  beautifully  cohe- 
rent. Through  the  apparently  accidental  en- 
counters which  led  to  the  work  that  brought 
him  distinction  and  suffering,  there  runs  the 
unifying  logic  of  his  personality.  He  was  self- 
made  in  the  finest  sense  of  the  word,  for  every 
forward  step  in  his  career  cost  labor  and  pain. 
Yet  in  another  sense  he  seems  to  have  been 
predestined  to  do  what  he  did  do.  His  was  the 
destiny  of  character.  He  had  many  virtues 
which  are  not  uncommon  in  men,  industry, 
courage,  strength  of  will,  humor,  kindness. 
But  there  was,  in  addition,  something  more 
subtle,  some  unnamable  charm,  which  at- 
tracted men  to  him  and  gave  him  the  oppor- 
tunities of  which  he  made  so  much.  This 
personal  charm,  which  was  the  key  to  his 
character  and  to  his  work,  must  have  been 
born  with  him.  His  nature,  his  soul,  which 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

drew  to  him  all  men  and  women,  employer, 
colleague,  or  patient,  is  the  central  theme 
of  his  remarkable  story ;  round  it  the  simple 
events  fall  into  clear  sequence. 

Dodd  was  born  in  London,  April  22,  i 869, 
the  youngest  child  and  only  son  in  a  large 
family.  His  father  was  an  artisan,  a  worker 
in  metal  roofing.  He  died  when  Walter  was 
eight  years  old ;  so  that  it  is  not  likely  that  his 
ideas  had  much  influence  on  his  son.  Never- 
theless, it  is  worth  noting  that  he  was  a  man 
of  ideas ;  he  was  one  of  the  earliest  experi- 
menters in  the  cooperative  movement  which 
later  became  important  in  the  history  of  Eng- 
lish labor.  When  his  first  experiments  failed, 
he  went  cheerfully  on  to  the  next,  undismayed 
and  forgetful  of  the  cost  to  himself;  in  one 
characteristic,  at  least,  he  was  the  true  father 
of  his  son. 

An  uncle  of  Walter's  was  stage  carpenter 
at  the  Drury  Lane  Theatre,  and  Walter  was 
often  behind  the  scenes.  Once  he  got  a  place 
as  supernumerary  in  the  Christmas  panto- 
mime, without  his  father's  knowledge  and 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

consent.  The  father  discovered  the  ticket  and 
the  fact  that  rehearsals  had  necessitated  sev- 
eral absences  from  school ;  he  administered 
fitting  punishment  and  forbade  Walter's  ap- 
pearance in  the  play.  But  he  made  up  for  the 
young  actor's  disappointment  by  taking  him 
to  the  performance.  Walter  was  scornfully 
critical  of  the  boy  who  had  taken  his  place. 
This  is  the  only  recorded  instance  in  Dodd's 
life  of  envy  or  censoriousness.  Later  his  in- 
terest in  theatricals  not  only  afforded  him  one 
of  his  greatest  pleasures,  but,  as  we  shall 
see,  had  an  indirect  influence  on  his  practical 
career. 

At  the  age  of  ten  Walter  came  to  America 
to  live  with  his  sister,  Mrs.  Charles  Cummins. 
The  family  was  in  none  too  comfortable  cir- 
cumstances, and  Walter  knew  privation  if 
not  the  severest  poverty.  After  a  few  years  in 
the  public  schools  he  went  to  work  for  the  Ori- 
ental Tea  Company  in  Boston,  where  he  was 
employed  as  office  boy.  He  started  on  what 
he  used  to  call  his  first  real  job  in  February, 
1883,  and  stayed  until  December,  1887. 

3 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

Years  later  the  senior  member  of  the  firm 
became  Dr.  Dodd's  patient.  One  of  the  part- 
ners says  that  Walter  was  not  a  brilliant  boy, 
but  was  good  and  reliable.  However,  before 
he  had  established  his  reputation  as  a  trust- 
worthy boy,  he  once  forgot  an  errand,  and 
his  employer,  who  was,  he  says,  absorbed  in 
business  troubles,  summarily  discharged  him. 
But  Walter  was  pertinacious  and  appeared  at 
his  post  next  morning.  The  employer,  see- 
ing him  there  and  having  only  a  confused  rec- 
ollection of  this  minor  detail  in  his  affairs, 
said :  "  Look  here,  did  n't  I  tell  you  to  go  ? " 

"Yes,  sir,  but  I  came  back." 

After  that  he  proved  satisfactory.  The 
business  man's  estimate  of  the  boy's  character 
as  dependable  rather  than  brilliant  seems  just. 
For  Dodd's  intellectual  endowment  was  good, 
but  not  extraordinary,  it  was  not  the  thing  that 
made  him;  he  did  not  fly  to  success  on  the 
wings  of  inspiration.  His  genius  was  made  up 
of  patience,  steadiness  of  mind,  and  a  capacity 
for  work  which  implies  a  strong  physical  con- 
stitution. Enfolding  all,  surrounding  him  like 

4 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

a  light  or  like  a  perfume,  was  that  personality 
whose  magic  it  is  difficult  for  words  to  recap- 
ture. 

It  was  his  personal  attraction  which  led  to 
his  next  employment,  and  so  to  his  life-work. 
He  was  at  this  time  in  Miss  Bullard's  Sunday- 
School  class  at  the  Bulfinch  Street  Chapel. 
We  do  not  know  what  his  religious  opinions 
and  interests  were  then ;  later  he  came  to  a 
mild  disbelief  in  immortality  and  thought  that 
we  have  our  chance  on  this  earth  once  and  for 
all.  However  that  may  be,  it  is  the  testimony 
of  his  associates  of  those  days  that  one  of  the 
things  which  made  the  friendly  Unitarian  at- 
mosphere of  the  Chapel  most  pleasant  for  him 
was  the  entertainments,  the  amateur  theatri- 
cals ;  the  boy  who  had  played,  in  the  boy's  if 
not  the  actor's  sense  of  the  word,  on  the  stage 
of  the  Drury  Lane  Theatre,  became  a  fav- 
orite comedian  in  the  Chapel  performances. 
That  he  was  a  clever  actor  any  one  must  be- 
lieve who  later  heard  him  sing  and  tell  stor- 
ies ;  he  had  an  excellent  gift  of  mimicry,  and 
his  speaking  voice  with  its  seductive  inflections 

5 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

is  unforgettable.  Some  pictures  taken  at  this 
period,  or  a  little  later,  show  him  in  costume, 
and  through  the  make-up  there  is  revealed 
at  least  one  feature  as  we  afterward  knew  it, 
the  humorous  mouth  with  the  sidelong  smile. 

In  the  Chapel,  as  everywhere,  he  found 
many  friends.  His  teacher,  Miss  Bullard,  rec- 
ommended him  to  her  cousin,  President  Eliot, 
of  Harvard.  At  this  time  Dodd  was  planning 
to  go  to  sea.  His  sister  opposed  the  plan,  and 
President  Eliot  also  dissuaded  him  and  se- 
cured for  him  the  place  of  assistant  janitor  in 
the  Boylston  Chemical  Laboratory  at  Har- 
vard. Probably  Mr.  Eliot  does  not  recall  the 
circumstances,  but  Dodd  liked  to  remember 
the  two  interviews  with  the  President  which 
led  to  a  lifelong  association  with  Harvard  and 
Harvard  men  and  also  led  to  his  association 
with  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital 
where  his  real  work  began. 

He  served  in  the  laboratory  from  De- 
cember 26, 1887,  until  April  9, 1892.  The 
teachers  in  charge  of  the  laboratories  in  which 
he  worked  were  Professor  C.  L.  Jackson  and 

6 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

Professor  W.  B.  Hill.  After  Dodd's  death  Pro- 
fessor Jackson  wrote :  — 

"He  was  by  far  the  best  janitor  we  had, 
the  only  disadvantage  being  that  he  was  so 
much  too  good  for  the  place  that  we  knew 
we  must  lose  him  soon,  as  proved  to  be  the 
case.  All  of  us  liked  him  extremely  and  were 
very  much  interested  in  him  and  his  subse- 
quent career.  It  gave  me  a  warmth  about  the 
heart  only  to  see  his  sign  in  Beacon  Street." 

As  janitor  he  had  not  only  to  clean  and 
sweep,  but  also  to  prepare  the  materials  for 
the  students*  experiments.  Thus  he  came  in 
contact  with  the  subject  of  chemistry.  He 
asked  permission  to  do  the  experiments  him- 
self, and  the  instructors  encouraged  him  be- 
cause they  liked  him  and  also  because  the 
opportunity  to  study  was  what  kept  him  in 
a  position  for  which  he  was  too  good.  The 
extent  and  quality  of  his  work  are  shown  in 
the  letter  of  recommendation  which  Profes- 
sor Hill  gave  him :  — 

"  While  he  was  in  our  laboratory,  Mr. 
Walter  J.  Dodd  attended  regularly  the  lec- 

7 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

tures  given  in  general  chemistry  and  per- 
formed all  the  experiments  required  of  our 
students  under  the  direction  of  one  of  the 
assistants.  Upon  that  course  he  passed  no 
examinations,  but  in  the  following  year  he 
took  my  own  course  in  Qualitative  Analysis. 
His  experimental  work  was  unusually  good 
and  he  also  passed  with  credit  the  two  writ- 
ten examinations  of  the  course.  I  think  that 
he  profited  more  from  the  instruction  in  the 
two  courses  than  most  of  our  matriculated 
students." 

Professor  Jackson  reminds  us  that  Dodd's 
approach  to  science  was  not  unlike  that  of 
Faraday,  who  as  a  young  man  was  employed, 
on  the  recommendation  of  Sir  Humphry 
Davy,  in  the  laboratory  of  the  British  Insti- 
tution, first  as  wage-earner,  later  as  chemist. 

In  April,  1892,  Dodd  was  appointed  as- 
sistant apothecary  at  the  Massachusetts  Gen- 
eral Hospital.  During  the  next  two  years 
he  continued  his  studies  in  chemistry;  he 
passed  the  State  examination  and  became  a 
registered  pharmacist.  In  the  autumn  of  1 894 

8 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

he  was  appointed  chief  apothecary  of  the 
Hospital.  He  was  an  excellent  chemist,  and 
he  came  into  touch  with  medicine  long  be- 
fore the  X-ray  was  heard  of  and  longer  still 
before  he  became  a  physician.  Dr.  Porter 
recalls  the  case  of  a  clever  neurotic  woman 
addicted  to  morphine,  who  had  been  treated 
before  with  valerian,  "calmer  of  hysteric 
squirms/'  knew  the  smell  of  it,  and  refused 
to  take  it.  Dodd  invented  a  combination 
which  completely  deceived  her — and  which 
to  this  day  is  lost  to  medical  art. 

In  addition  to  the  work  of  dispensing  sup- 
plies and  filling  prescriptions,  the  apothecary 
had  another  task;  he  was  official  photog- 
rapher to  the  Hospital.  He  took  pictures  of 
"interesting"  persons,  or  portions  of  per- 
sons, alive  or  dead.  So  Dodd  became  an 
expert  photographer.  When,  in  1895,  were 
published  the  first  obscure  reports  of  the 
discovery  by  Roentgen  of  a  method  of  photo- 
graphing the  bones  of  the  body,  Dodd  set  to 
work  at  once  to  explore  this  unknown  force 
of  which  he  was  to  become  master  and  vie- 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

tim.  The  experiments  which  he  and  his  as- 
sistant, Mr.  Joseph  Godsoe,  made  during 
the  next  few  months  were  the  first  that 
were  undertaken  in  any  American  hospital. 


II 

DODD'S  life  is  inseparable  from  the  develop- 
ment of  Roentgenology.  A  layman's  imper- 
fect sketch  of  the  uses  of  the  X-ray  may  help 
those  of  his  friends  who  are  not  physicians 
to  see  his  commanding  figure  against  his 
professional  background. 

The  discovery  of  the  X-ray  or  the  Roent- 
gen-ray was  one  of  four  great  moments  in 
the  history  of  surgery.  The  first  was  the 
use  of  ether  as  an  anaesthetic,  the  beneficent 
spirit  that  first  revealed  itself  at  the  Massa- 
chusetts General  Hospital  in  1 846.  The  next 
step  was  the  discovery  of  bacteria  and  the 
science  of  bacteriology  founded  by  Pasteur. 
From  that  followed  the  third  great  develop- 
ment by  Lister  and  others  of  antisepsis  and 
asepsis,  which  means  in  layman's  language 
the  prevention,  by  chemicals  and  measures 
of  cleanliness,  of  the  infection  of  wounds. 
Then  came  the  X-ray. 

11 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

Roentgen  found,  by  an  accident  which  he 
had  the  genius  to  analyze,  that  a  current  of 
electricity  passing  through  a  vacuum  tube 
produces  rays,  invisible  to  the  naked  eye, 
which  penetrate  substances  opaque  to  ordi- 
nary light,  such  as  fat  and  muscle,  and  cast 
on  a  photographic  plate  or  a  fluorescent 
screen  the  shadows  of  substances  of  greater 
density  than  fat  and  muscle,  such  as  bone 
and  metal.  Since  he  did  not  know  what  these 
rays  are,  he  called  them  "X"  —  unknown. 
In  twenty  years  men  have  found  and  labeled 
other  rays  that  lie  beyond  our  vision,  have 
explained  their  physical  nature,  and  have 
invented  and  perfected  apparatus  for  pro- 
ducing them.  This  work  has  been  carried 
on  in  the  laboratories  of  scientific  institu- 
tions and  of  manufactories,  and  lies  outside 
the  work  of  the  surgeon  or  the  X-ray  oper- 
ator. He  contributes  suggestions  and  makes 
requisitions  on  the  ingenuity  of  electrical 
engineers  and  manufacturers.  Dodd  sug- 
gested many  improvements  which  makers 
of  apparatus  worked  out.  His  great  contri- 

12 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

bution  to  the  subject  was  made,  not  in  the 
physical  laboratory,  but  in  the  Hospital,  in 
the  application  of  the  X-ray  to  surgery,  in 
the  diagnostic  interpretation  of  what  this 
wonderful  new  light  revealed  in  the  bodies 
of  the  wounded  and  the  sick. 

The  X-ray  made  possible  an  accuracy 
and  a  rapidity  of  diagnosis  hitherto  un- 
known. The  earliest  and  most  obvious  use 
of  the  ray  was  to  localize  foreign  substances 
in  the  human  body.  Needles,  bullets,  frag- 
ments of  glass,  and  other  metallic  intruders 
can  be  seen  and  their  exact  position  deter- 
mined. The  surgeon  no  longer  probes  for 
a  bullet  as  he  did  in  the  past,  relying  on 
the  tactual  encounter  of  his  instrument,  but 
by  means  of  photographs,  or  fluoroscopic 
views  taken  from  different  angles,  plots  the 
situation  of  the  offending  body.  Instruments 
have  been  devised  which  enable  the  radiog- 
rapher to  make  these  measurements  with 
sureness  and  ease. 

A  similar  use  of  the  X-ray  is  in  the  ob- 
servation of  fractures  of  the  bone.  The  day 

13 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

of  bone-setting  by  touch  and  guess  is  past. 
In  the  case  of  fracture  or  dislocation,  in- 
deed of  almost  all  internal  injuries,  an  X-ray 
examination  is  a  matter  of  course.  By 
means  of  good  X-ray  plates  a  surgeon 
skilled  in  interpreting  can  often  diagnosti- 
cate an  injury  or  a  diseased  condition  in  a 
patient  whom  he  has  never  seen.  In  hun- 
dreds of  cases  Dodd  knew  what  the  sur- 
geon would  do,  or  ought  to  do,  before  the 
surgeon  arrived. 

In  the  days  before  radiography  people 
suffered  from  injuries  in  bones  and  joints 
which  doctors  were  unable  to  account  for 
with  any  degree  of  certainty.  Sprained 
wrists  continued  to  give  pain  long  after  the 
effect  of  the  "sprain"  should  normally  have 
passed.  In  such  cases  to-day  the  X-ray 
sometimes  discloses  a  minute  fracture  which 
the  doctor's  touch  has  failed  to  discover. 
Lesions  of  the  bone  caused  by  tuberculosis, 
syphilis,  and  other  diseases,  subtle  injuries 
which  were  formerly  hidden  unless  the  bone 
was  laid  bare,  are  now  rendered  partially 

14 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

visible  to  the  trained  eye  by  the  light  which 
sees  under  the  skin. 

The  opacity  of  bone,  metal,  and  other 
solid  substances  makes  their  shadows  rel- 
atively definite  and  obvious.  With  the  de- 
velopment of  Roentgenology,  the  improve- 
ment of  apparatus,  and  the  increased  skill 
of  practitioners,  differentiations  became  pos- 
sible which  are  much  finer  than  the  shadow 
contrasts  between  bone  and  flesh.  The 
relative  densities  of  different  kinds  of  tis- 
sues, of  the  tissues  of  different  organs,  of 
diseased  and  healthy  tissues  of  the  same 
organ  were  recorded  with  ever-increasing 
legibility  upon  the  radiographic  plate. 

A  most  important  use  of  the  X-ray  has 
been  in  determining  the  condition  of  the 
lungs  and  the  digestive  system.  It  has  long 
been  known  that  the  important  thing  in 
fighting  tuberculosis  is  to  discover  it  early, 
to  check  it  before  its  ravages  get  beyond 
control.  And  it  is  also  known  that  tubercu- 
losis of  the  lungs  can  advance  to  a  danger- 
ous stage  before  it  gives  the  physical  signs 

15 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

by  which  physicians  have  been  accustomed 
to  recognize  it.  The  X-ray  exposes  incipi- 
ent consumption  and  shows  the  place  and 
extent  of  the  lesion.  By  introducing  into 
the  alimentary  tract  some  substance  opaque 
to  the  X-ray,  such  as  bismuth,  the  physician 
can  throw  on  the  fluoroscopic  screen  a  sort 
of  moving  picture  of  the  digestive  process 
and  detect  any  obstructions  or  abnormali- 
ties. Among  the  first  experiments  with  this 
method  of  examination  was  the  work  of 
Dr.  Walter  B.  Cannon;  and  Dodd  was  his 
coadjutor.  He  was  first  mate  on  many  ships 
that  tried  uncharted  waters. 

The  list  of  diseases  the  presence  and 
extent  of  which  are  betrayed  or  confirmed 
by  the  X-ray,  would  fill  pages  and  would 
include  most  of  the  enemies  to  human  health. 
Among  them  maybe  mentioned  many  forms 
of  tuberculosis,  occult  abscesses  whose  ram- 
ifying consequences  physicians  were  once 
unable  to  refer  to  their  source,  tumors,  can- 
cers, kidney  stones,  gastric  ulcers,  diseases 
of  the  heart. 

16 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

In  addition  to  their  use  in  exploring  and 
illuminating  the  body  X-rays  have  a  thera- 
peutic or  curative  value.  They  destroy  or 
check  the  growth  of  morbid  tissue,  such  as 
tumors  and  cancers.  This  use  of  the  ray, 
which  is  rapidly  developing,  may  prove  to 
be  one  of  the  most  important  of  its  services. 
Dodd  himself  was  rather  skeptical,  or  in- 
clined to  suspend  judgment  (for  skepticism 
is  not  the  word  for  his  cool  reserve  of  opin- 
ion, his  combination  of  tempered  accuracy 
and  daring) ;  in  his  own  case  he  dismissed 
deep  X-ray  therapy  as  of  such  doubtful  value 
as  to  be  not  worth  trying.  But  he  was  tire- 
less in  trying  it  on  other  patients. 

The  X-ray  not  only  destroys  malignant 
tissues,  but  with  blind  impartiality  breaks 
down  healthy  tissue  and  so  induces  cancerous 
growth.  The  first  radiographers  learned  this 
by  cruel  experience.  Many  were  hurt  and 
some  were  killed  by  the  unknown  power 
which  they  were  studying  for  the  benefit  of 
others.  They  paid  the  price  of  ignorance  and 
with  their  sufferings  bought  the  knowledge 

17 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

which  has  made  the  X-ray  safe  for  patients 
and  operators.  The  story  of  these  men  and 
their  work  is  a  splendid  instance  of  human 
intelligence  converting  to  human  service 
natural  forces  which  if  misunderstood  and 
allowed  to  run  wild  are  charged  with  danger. 


m 

AT  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital 
there  is  affectionately  preserved  a  glass  bulb 
about  the  size  of  a  potato;  it  is  Dodd's  first 
attempt  to  make  an  X-ray  tube.  No  X-ray 
ever  came  out  of  it  or  ever  could  come  out 
of  it.  It  is  one  of  those  fine  little  failures  that 
are  the  prelude  to  achievement.  At  the  Hos- 
pital they  enjoy  telling  how  Dodd  and  his 
assistant  went  about  the  institution  "bor- 
rowing" fragments  of  electrical  appliances 
with  which  they  labored  after  hours  to  fash- 
ion an  X-ray  machine.  For  some  months 
their  plates  did  not  show  the  faintest  shadow. 
In  March  of  the  next  year,  1896,  they 
bought  a  commercial  X-ray  tube,  and  they 
got  their  power  from  a  static  electrical  ma- 
chine which  they  borrowed  from  the  Hospi- 
tal laboratory  and  which  they  were  allowed  to 
use  only  after  the  institution  had  closed  for  the 
night.  The  following  October  they  borrowed 

19 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

from  an  electrical  company  a  twelve-inch 
induction  coil.  That  month  the  Hospital  cele- 
brated the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  dis- 
covery of  the  use  of  ether  as  an  anaesthetic, 
and  Dodd's  first  X-ray  plates  were  among 
the  exhibits.  As  a  result  of  the  interest  they 
aroused  the  Hospital  bought  the  induction 
coil.  And  Dodd's  work  was  under  way. 

It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  Dodd  and 
his  assistant,  Mr.  Godsoe,  after  their  duties 
in  the  pharmacy  were  done  for  the  day,  to 
work  all  night  in  a  close,  dark  room,  where 
the  temperature  sometimes  rose  to  110°,  so 
that  it  was  necessary  to  put  ice  in  the  devel- 
oping fluid  to  prevent  the  film  from  leaving 
the  glass.  In  those  days  Dodd  had  an  ex- 
cellent physique,  a  slim,  athletic  figure,  and 
limitless  energy.  He  was  fond  of  sports, 
tennis,  bowling,  and  baseball.  The  work 
which  he  had  entered  upon  was  to  be  man- 
ual as  well  as  mental  and  would  seem  to  de- 
mand as  an  indispensable  equipment  a  sound, 
strong  pair  of  hands.  So  much  one  might 
have  asked  in  his  behalf  of  a  reasonable  Fate. 

20 


DODD  AS  A   YOUNG    MAN 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

But  it  was  not  to  be.  He  was  destined  to 
carry  on  his  work  for  twenty  years  with 
hands  that  became  more  and  more  crippled 
and  mutilated. 

His  suffering  began  almost  immediately. 
In  November,  1896,  only  a  month  after  the  in- 
stallment of  the  induction  coil,  he  was  treated 
for  severe  dermatitis,  which  resembles  acute 
sunburn.  By  the  following  April  his  burns 
had  so  far  increased  that  he  was  put  on  the 
dangerous  list  at  the  hospital.  It  was  as  though 
his  hands  and  face  had  been  scalded,  and  the 
pain,  Dr.  Porter  says,  was  beyond  descrip- 
tion. At  that  time  it  was  not  known  that  the 
familiar  sunburn  and  arctic  burn  are  caused 
by  the  invisible  ultra-violet  light  rays,  and 
the  nature  and  the  effect  of  X-rays  were  not 
even  suspected.  It  was  not  until  several  years 
later,  when  men  had  been  burned  in  labora- 
tories and  hospitals  all  over  the  world  and 
surgeons  and  physicists  began  to  compare 
notes,  that  the  disastrous  effects  of  X-rays 
were  understood  and  guarded  against.  At 
first  the  obvious  remedies,  washes  and  oint- 

21 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

ments,  were  applied.  Meanwhile  the  cause 
of  the  trouble  continued  to  operate  and 
wrought  ever  more  irremediable  damage.  * 

Dodd  himself  did  not  suspect  the  gravity 
of  his  injuries.  In  his  nature  cheerfulness  and 
intrepidity  merged  into  recklessness  and 
obstinacy.  Though  he  endured  untellable 
torments,  he  made  light  of  his  sufferings. 
The  burns  would  get  well.  It  may  be  that 
he  really  thought  his  injuries  were  super- 
ficial and  temporary ;  or  it  may  be  that  he 
was  practicing  a  little  self-deception,  —  it 
was  the  only  deception  that  he  ever  prac- 
ticed,—  for  in  spite  of  his  courageous  candor 
in  facing  facts,  he  never  lost  a  slightly  su- 
perstitious optimism  about  himself.  And  he 
was  confirmed  in  his  faith  that  things  would 
come  out  all  right  by  the  number  of  times 
that  he  recovered  when  by  all  the  rules  a 
weaker  man  would  have  succumbed. 

Whether  reckless  or  innocently  unaware 
of  the  risks  he  was  running,  he  certainly  did 
not  spare  himself.  As  soon  as  pain  abated 
and  he  could  use  his  hands,  he  was  back  in 

22 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

the  dark  room  with  his  precious  machine. 
Mr.  Godsoe  recalls  that  as  a  matter  of  course 
before  they  went  to  bed  they  washed  their 
hands  in  zinc  oxide  solution  and  wrapped 
them  in  cloths.  Often  when  pain  made  sleep 
impossible,  Dodd  would  walk  the  floor  of 
the  pharmacy  all  night  with  his  hands  above 
his  head. 

It  is  easy  now  to  understand  what  was 
happening  to  Dodd  and  his  contemporaries. 
In  a  modern  X-ray  machine  the  strength 
of  the  current,  the  quality  of  the  spark,  all 
the  conditions,  are  determined  by  metrical 
instruments.  In  the  early  days  the  operator 
tested  his  tube  and  adjusted  it  by  throwing 
the  shadow  of  his  hand  on  the  fluoroscope ; 
by  the  look  of  the  shadow  he  judged  how 
the  machine  was  behaving.  First  he  used 
the  left  hand  until  that  became  too  sore,  then 
the  right.  And  until  devices  were  found  to 
focus  and  confine  the  rays,  the  face  of  the 
operator  was  exposed,  and  sometimes  the 
neck  and  chest  were  burned.  A  limited  ex- 
posure to  the  X-ray  is  as  harmless  as  a  walk 

23 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

in  the  sunlight.  It  is  the  repeated,  continu- 
ous bombardment  of  the  ray  that  is  calami- 
tous. Dodd  and  the  other  pioneers  lived  in 
the  X-ray. 

To  dwell  too  much  on  Dodd's  suffering 
would  be  a  violation  of  his  spirit.  The  mem- 
ory of  his  reticence  and  uncomplaining  for- 
titude all  but  imposes  silence.  He  regarded 
his  own  case  with  a  curious  objectivity,  as  if  the 
affliction  had  befallen  another  man.  He  took 
a  third-personal  attitude  toward  himself  as  the 
patient  of  his  friend  and  surgeon,  Dr.  Porter. 
He  was  more  solicitous  for  the  success  of  an 
operation  from  the  surgical  point  of  view  than 
for  the  benefit  to  himself.  Even  to  his  rela- 
tives and  most  intimate  friends  he  seldom 
spoke  of  his  injuries.  Beneath  the  surface 
of  his  communicative  nature,  which  was  in- 
stantly responsive  to  any  one  he  met,  lay 
a  profound  reserve.  More  than  once  Mrs. 
Dodd  discovered  by  accident  that  he  had  had 
severe  hemorrhages  which  he  had  concealed 
from  her ;  on  being  accused,  he  meekly  ad- 
mitted the  fact  —  and  then  dismissed  it.  He 

24 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

was  sensitively  aware  that  his  mutilations 
might  be  unpleasant  to  other  people ;  and  it 
is  true  of  him,  if  it  is  true  of  any  human  be- 
ing, that  though  constant  pain  gave  him  the 
right  to  be  conscious  of  himself  every  minute, 
he  always  thought  of  other  people  first.  As  I 
write  this,  I  can  see  his  smile  of  wistful  pro- 
test; his  photograph  winks  at  me,  and  I  hear 
his  exquisite  voice  say :  "  Old  top,  don't  lay 
it  on  too  thick."  And  yet  to  convey  to  those 
who  did  not  know  him  a  little  of  the  magni- 
tude of  his  story,  to  suggest  the  quality  of 
his  heroism,  which  his  friends  knew  and 
which  it  is  right  for  others  to  know,  I  shall  be 
obliged  to  displease  him  by  giving  at  least  a 
simple  chronicle  of  the  sufferings  which  he 
magnificently  overcame. 

By  the  middle  of  his  second  year  of  work 
with  the  X-ray,  his  hands  were  crippled  by 
acutely  painful  ulcers.  In  July,  1897,  Dr. 
Porter  performed  the  first  of  a  series  of 
operations  in  skin-grafting,  which  were  suc- 
cessful and  brought  relief  from  pain.  This 
method  of  treatment  was  new  at  that  time, 

25 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

and  Dodd  himself  suggested  the  experiment. 
The  excellent  results  in  his  case  helped  to  es- 
tablish skin-grafting  and  so  benefited  many 
other  patients.  In  1902  carcinoma  developed 
and  the  first  amputation  became  necessary. 
From  that  time  on  surgeon  and  patient  to- 
gether fought  stubbornly  and  courageously 
to  save  as  much  as  possible  of  those  use- 
ful hands.  There  were  fifty  operations  under 
ether,  which  lasted  from  an  hour  and  a  half 
to  three  hours.  The  capable  fingers  were 
taken  away  bit  by  bit.  Rather  than  yield  a 
fragment  of  a  joint,  Dodd  would  endure  the 
agony  of  keeping  it  for  months  after  it  should 
have  been  removed.  Sometimes  neither  sur- 
geon nor  patient  could  judge  in  advance  just 
how  extensive  an  operation  might  prove  to 
be  necessary,  and  Dodd  went  to  the  oper- 
ating-table without  knowing  how  much  of 
his  hands  would  be  left  when  he  awoke  from 
the  ether. 

And  between  operations  he  pursued  his 
work,  never  sparing  himself,  often  neglect- 
ing himself  until  his  friends  insisted  that  he 

26 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

must  no  longer  postpone  the  next  of  the 
ever-recurring  operations.  His  superb  de- 
tachment of  mind  for  once  broke  the  rule  that 
a  doctor  makes  a  poor  patient,  for  in  consul- 
tation with  his  surgeon  he  conducted  his  own 
case  and  decided  himself  when  it  was  time 
to  go  to  the  hospital.  Perhaps  he  might  have 
saved  himself  much  suffering  if  he  had  ac- 
cepted his  invalidity  and  given  his  whole  at- 
tention to  getting  well.  It  may  be  that  more 
radical  operations  at  the  beginning  would  have 
checked  his  disease  and  delayed  his  death. 
But  he  lived  for  his  work  and  he  determined 
to  preserve  and  use  as  long  as  possible  the 
manual  instruments  on  which  his  work  de- 
pended. He  did  much  in  a  few  years  and  was 
content.  For  in  spite  of  his  suffering  he  was 
happy  in  his  work.  No  man  was  ever  more 
enthusiastically  absorbed  in  his  task.  That  is 
why  he  was  often  in  his  laboratory  when  he 
ought  to  have  been  in  bed.  And  that  is  why 
he  did  not  flinch  or  waver  or  complain. 

Dr.  Porter  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  Dodd 
in  which  one  sees  in  a  flash  the  extent  of 

27 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

his  sufferings  and  his  humorous  bravery. 
One  morning  in  May,  1905,  Dr.  Porter 
met  Dodd  coming  down  the  hospital  corri- 
dor with  his  characteristic  gait  (it  was  a  sort 
of  sinewy  and  graceful  swagger)  and  an  un- 
usually happy  smile  on  his  face.  Dodd  asked 
the  surgeon  if  he  noticed  anything  queer. 
"No."  "Don't  you  see  that  I  have  both 
hands  in  my  trousers  pockets  and  not  a 
dressing  on  either?"  It  was  the  first  time 
he  had  been  able  to  do  this  in  eight  years. 
In  one  place  only  has  Dodd  left  a  record  of 
what  he  endured.  It  appears  in  the  article 
which  he  wrote  in  collaboration  with  Dr. 
Robert  B.  Osgood,  entitled  "The  Tech- 
nique of  Radiographic  Work  as  Applied  to 
Surgery  and  the  Interpretation  of  Radio- 
graphs," and  published  in  "American  Prac- 
tice of  Surgery."  The  authors  say:  "The 
martyrdom  of  those  men  who  began  their 
X-ray  investigations  soon  after  its  discov- 
ery has  been  a  very  real  one.  The  lesions 
which  have  resulted  have  been  in  many 
cases  ineffaceable  and  have  entailed  an  im- 

28 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

mense  amount  of  physical  and  mental  suf- 
fering." Dr.  Porter  has  written:  "From 
my  experience  and  personal  communica- 
tions from  patients,  I  believe  that  the  agony 
of  inflamed  X-ray  lesions  is  almost  un- 
equaled  by  any  other  disease.  While  mor- 
phia has  been  used  in  some  of  the  cases,  it 
is  really  surprising  to  find  how  many  have 
borne  their  pain  without  resorting  to  its 
habitual  use." 

From  the  beginning  Dodd  had  at  hand  in 
the  pharmacy  morphine  and  other  narcotics. 
He  never  touched  them.  Even  during  his 
last  illness  he  rebelled  against  the  hypoder- 
mic injections  of  morphine  which  his  phy- 
sicians ordered.  The  only  drug  which  he 
allowed  himself  to  take  was  aspirin,  which 
came  into  use  several  years  after  his  first 
injuries.  An  ordinary  man  might  have  been 
pardoned  for  taking  to  drink  or  to  drugs,  or 
for  meditating  suicide.  But  Dodd's  spirit 
was  triumphant  in  everything  that  gives 
worth  to  human  nature. 

Only  once    for  a  short  period  did  his 

29 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

brave  mind  skirt  the  shore  of  dark  thoughts." 
It  .was  during  a  time  of  intense  suffering 
when,  as  he  later  confessed,  he  seemed  to 
be  losing  his  nerve.  He  used  to  hope  when 
he  was  on  a  railroad  train,  not  that  an  acci- 
dent might  happen,  but  that  if  an  accident 
should  happen  he  might  be  killed.  And  he 
sometimes  loitered  when  he  crossed  the 
street,  praying  that  a  truck  might  run  him 
down.  It  is  consoling  to  know  of  this  mo- 
mentary departure  from  his  steadfast,  cheer- 
ful way,  for  it  brings  him  nearer  to  us  ordi- 
nary mortals ;  he  was  extraordinary,  but  he 
was  not  superhuman.  Chance  was  kinder 
to  him  than  he  knew,  for  his  life  grew  ever 
richer  and  more  useful,  and  though  he  was 
never  free  from  suffering,  he  was  happy; 
his  last  years  were  the  happiest  of  all. 


IV 

THE  unique  authority  which  Dodd  attained 
in  the  Hospital  and  in  his  profession  was  in 
a  double  sense  a  triumph  of  personality.  It 
was  not  only  that  he  was  a  pioneer  and  threw 
all  his  strength  into  his  task ;  other  men  in 
other  institutions  advanced  the  science  of 
radiography  with  equal  energy  and  self- 
sacrifice.  It  was  not  only  that  his  courage  and 
sound  judgment  commanded  respect;  the 
history  of  the  X-ray  is  rich  in  intelligence 
and  bravery.  But  his  lovable  character 
brought  him  extraordinary  opportunities,  for 
it  invited  to  his  laboratory  the  best  minds  in 
the  Hospital.  He  was  the  favorite  of  the  in- 
stitution. Doctors  and  surgeons  enjoyed  talk- 
ing over  their  cases  with  him.  So  that  while 
he  taught  much  and  gave  freely  of  himself 
to  others,  he  also  learned  much  from  others, 
and  for  years  before  he  took  a  degree  in 
medicine  he  had  been  in  school  under  the 

31 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

best  surgeons  and  physicians.  His  accumu- 
lated experience  in  the  interpretation  of  radio- 
graphs was  the  sum  of  his  own  observation 
and  the  instruction  which  he  absorbed  from 
specialists. 

Thus  the  time  came  when  he  had  seen 
and  learned  to  interpret  the  radiographic  rec- 
ords of  more  cases  of  more  kinds  than  any 
of  the  doctors.  Usually  the  radiographer, 
however  skillful  and  highly  respected,  is 
subordinate  to  the  surgeon;  he  makes  the 
pictures  and  the  surgeon  interprets  them. 
Dodd  was  more  than  that;  he  came  to  be 
really  a  consulting  surgeon,  whose  opinion 
of  the  advisability  and  nature  of  an  operation 
guided  the  acting  surgeon.  As  his  colleague, 
Dr.  Lee,  has  said,  he  spoiled  the  men  at  the 
Massachusetts  General  Hospital  because  they 
relied  implicitly  on  his  interpretation  for  guid- 
ance. When  the  Medical  Unit,  of  which 
Dodd  was  a  member,  went  to  France,  his 
old  associates  at  the  Massachusetts  General 
Hospital  had  an  amusing  and  gratifying  ex- 
perience. Members  of  the  Unit  from  other 

32 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

institutions,  though  they  knew  Dodd's  work, 
were  not  accustomed  to  defer  to  the  judg- 
ment of  an  X-ray  operator,  and  they  were 
puzzled  by  the  attitude  of  the  men  who  had 
worked  intimately  with  him.  In  a  short  time 
all  the  doctors  in  the  hospital  came  to  under- 
stand and  make  use  of  Dodd's  sound  and 
accurate  j  udgment .  At  least  one  soldier  owes 
his  arm  to  Dodd's  revision  of  a  surgeon's  first 
conclusion  from  an  X-ray  examination. 

In  what  concerned  himself  alone  Dodd 
was  venturesome,  even  reckless;  in  what 
concerned  others  he  was  judicious  and  cau- 
tious. Among  Roentgenologists  he  had  the 
reputation  of  being  conservative.  Like  other 
new  discoveries  the  X-ray  passed  through  a 
period  when  its  more  enthusiastic  champions 
expected  too  much  of  it  and  gave  for  it  prom- 
ises which  could  not  be  immediately  fulfilled. 
This  was  especially  true  in  its  therapeutic 
uses.  Dodd's  attitude  was  one  of  patience 
and  retarded  conclusions.  So  that  when  he 
spoke  at  meetings  of  medical  societies  or  was 
called  in  consultation,  he  was  listened  to  with 

33 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

respect.  At  the  same  time  he  was  an  eager 
experimenter.  His  assistants  used  to  deplore 
the  facility  with  which  the  exploiter  of  some 
new  device  could  persuade  him,  and  they 
accused  him  of  being  gullible.  He  was  not 
that.  On  the  contrary,  he  had  a  vein  of  what 
his  English  soul  will  permit  us  to  call  Yan- 
kee shrewdness,  and  he  was  an  excellent 
mechanic.  Simply,  he  believed  in  trying 
everything  once,  and  more  than  once  if  it 
revealed  a  glimmer  of  promise. 

Beyond  his  scientific  authority  and  his 
professional  competence,  he  brought  to  the 
service  of  his  patients  the  gifts  of  his  sweet 
and  deep  nature.  Only  his  patients  know 
what  he  did  for  them  and  nobody  knows 
how  he  did  it.  He  had  a  way  with  children 
which  his  assistants  could  not  acquire.  In 
the  days  before  devices  were  perfected  for 
holding  a  patient  in  place,  it  was  difficult  to 
keep  a  child  quiet  under  a  crackling  machine 
long  enough  to  take  a  clear  picture.  To  a 
childish  imagination — of  any  age — an  X-ray 
room  is  not  a  reassuring  place.  The  most 

34 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

unmanageable  youngster,  who  defied  the 
arts  of  the  other  operators,  yielded  at  once 
to  Dodd's  magical  touch  and  the  arresting 
gentleness  of  his  voice.  Perhaps  his  influ- 
ence on  children  was  allied  with  his  power 
over  animals ;  for  he  could  whistle  birds  to 
his  window,  and  he  had  a  secret  understand- 
ing with  cats  and  dogs. 

Older  patients,  especially  those  that  had 
suffered  severely,  were  no  doubt  touched 
and  strengthened  by  the  visible  evidence  of 
his  own  suffering.  They  were  won  instantly 
by  his  smile  and  the  cheerful  word.  One 
story  is  probably  representative  of  hundreds 
which  will  never  be  told.  A  patient  of  Dr. 
X.  was  a  woman  in  early  middle  years.  Her 
physical  ailments  were  not  alarming,  but 
were  simply  the  signs  and  accompaniments 
of  the  incurable  malady  of  growing  old.  Her 
spirit  rebelled  against  the  passing  of  the 
charms  that  depend  on  youthful  well-being. 
When  Dr.  X.  suspected  some  obscure  trouble 
with  the  teeth  and  recommended  that  she 
have  her  jaws  X-rayed,  she  flew  into  a  pas- 

35 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

sion  of  revolt.  Life  was  not  worth  living. 
However,  she  went  to  Dodd  and  the  jaws 
were  X-rayed.  A  cure  was  wrought  before 
Dr.  X.  saw  the  plates,  for  she  returned  to 
him  and  said :  "  Thank  you  for  sending  me 
to  that  wonderful  man.  He  has  changed  my 
whole  outlook  on  life." 

When  some  studies  were  being  made  of 
the  hearts  of  athletes,  a  group  of  Harvard 
students  were  selected  for  examination  and 
were  asked  to  report  at  Dodd's  office.  A 
sturdy  youth,  conscious  of  perfect  health, 
wants  to  be  shown  a  reason  why  he  should 
waste  his  time  having  his  heart  examined, 
especially  when  the  problem  which  the  foolish 
doctors  are  studying  implies  a  suspicion  of  the 
benefit  of  hard  exercise.  There  was  some 
boyish  grumbling.  But  that  ceased  after  one 
visit  to  Dodd's  office.  The  boys  had  met  a 
man,  and  they  would  have  stood  on  their 
heads  for  him. 

For  all  his  experience  with  patients,  and  in 
spite  of  his  own  living  testimony  that  pres- 
ent pain  can  be  borne  and  imminent  inva- 

36 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

iidism  can  be  faced  serenely,  Dodd  never 
learned  to  regard  with  professional  equa- 
nimity acute  physical  distress  in  others  and 
the  pathos  of  hopeless  cases.  The  treatment 
of  cancers  exhausted  him.  The  continuous 
pouring  out  of  cheer  and  courage  into  the 
hearts  of  men  and  women,  some  of  whom 
he  knew  to  be  doomed,  was  a  severe  tax 
even  on  his  deep  spiritual  resources.  Some- 
times he  would  pother  in  his  back  office, 
pretending  to  be  busy  over  a  plate,  but  really 
screwing  up  his  courage  to  meet  a  waiting 
patient  whose  agonies  he  knew  would  be 
ended  only  by  death.  He  would  say  to  his 
wife  at  the  end  of  a  trying  day :  "  That  poor 
woman  will  never  get  well,  and  I  had  to  tell 
her  that  she  is  better.  Of  course  she  is 
Dr.  Y.'s  patient,  not  mine;  and  I  probably 
could  n't  tell  her  the  truth  anyway.  But  it 
hurts."  pAnd  there  would  be  no  sleep  for 
him  that  night. 

Dodd's  professional  advancement  was  sure 
and  rapid  and  made  him  and  his  friends  im- 
mensely happy.  Though  experience  had  long 

37 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

since  made  him  the  peer  of  many  physicians, 
he  was  ambitious  to  take  a  degree  in  medi- 
cine. It  was  partly  his  modesty  that  made 
him  feel  that  "  Mr/'  Dodd  was  inferior  to 
the  doctor  who  depended  on  him  for  advice. 
He  had  known  so  many  fine  doctors  that  his 
respect  for  the  degree  and  for  the  institu- 
tions associated  with  it  was  rooted  in  personal 
affection.  Besides,  a  degree  was  of  practical 
value  in  his  career.  So  in  1900  he  entered 
the  Harvard  Medical  School.  But  he  stayed 
only  a  year.  His  real  work  would  not  let 
him  alone ;  he  was  so  persistently  sought  for 
his  knowledge  of  radiography  that  formal 
study  was  impossible.  The  only  thing  to  do 
was  to  leave  Boston  and  the  old  M.  G.  H. 
and  find  a  retreat  far  enough  away  from  the 
work  that  had  been  his  life  day  and  night. 
He  went,  accordingly,  to  the  Medical  School 
of  the  University  of  Vermont,  where  he 
studied  intermittently  until  1908,  when  he 
received  his  degree  in  medicine.  On  his  de- 
parture, the  staff  of  the  M.  G.  H.  gave  him 
a  gold  watch,  of  which  he  was  proud  with 

38 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

an  overweening  modesty.  Is  it  permissible 
to  record  that  in  his  will  he  left  that  watch 
to  Dr.  Porter's  son? 

During  this  time  of  formal  schooling 
Dodd  kept  his  position  as  pharmacist  of  the 
Massachusetts  General  Hospital  and  in  al- 
ternating periods  carried  on  his  work  there 
and  pursued  his  studies  in  Vermont.  The 
life  in  Vermont,  aside  from  the  advantages 
of  study,  was  good  for  him,  and  he  was 
happy  there.  He  was  president  of  his  class, 
and  he  was,  of  course,  popular  with  his 
classmates. 

During  his  absence  from  the  Hospital  his 
work  was  assumed  by  his  faithful  colleague, 
Mr.  Godsoe,  who  took  advantage  of  the 
opportunity  to  arrange  systematically  the 
thousands  of  plates  that  had  accumulated. 
Dodd  carried  them  in  his  head  and  could 
lay  his  hand  readily  on  what  he  wanted, 
and  besides,  he  was  temperamentally  indif- 
ferent to  order  of  the  card- catalogue  kind. 
Mr.  Godsoe  realized  that  if  anything  hap- 
pened to  Dodd  the  usefulness  of  the  recorded 

39 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

work  of  years  would  be  seriously  impaired 
unless  it  was  methodically  classified.  With- 
out the  assistance  of  Mr.  Godsoe,  whose 
devotion  to  his  chief  went  far  beyond  offi- 
;ial  relations,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how 
Dodd  could  have  carried  through  his  work 
at  the  medical  school.  For  though  the  tech- 
nical studies  must  have  been  child's  play  to 
a  man  who  had  lived  in  a  practical  medical 
school  for  years,  this  was  the  period  when 
the  most  drastic  operations  on  his  hands  fol- 
lowed in  rapid  succession. 

After  his  graduation  from  the  Vermont 
Medical  School,  Dodd  was  officially  ap- 
pointed what  he  long  had  been  in  fact, 
Roentgenologist  to  the  Massachusetts  Gen- 
eral Hospital.  From  the  little  hole  in  the 
wall  where  Dodd  first  fumbled  in  the  dark, 
the  X-ray  laboratory  had  grown  into  one  of 
the  busiest  and  most  important  departments 
of  the  Hospital;  the  use  of  the  X-ray  had 
ramified  in  every  direction,"and  besides  be- 
ing overcrowded  with  routine  work  the  lab- 
oratory was  the  scene  of  continuous  experi- 

40 


THE  BULFINCH  FRONT 
OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   GENERAL  HOSPITAL 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

mentation  with  new  machines  and  new 
applications  of  radiography.  Though  Dodd 
had  able  assistants,  who  adored  him  and  did 
everything  to  lighten  his  burden,  his  work 
at  the  Hospital  was  enough  to  take  the  time 
and  energy  of  an  ordinary  man.  But  his 
energy,  taxed  [by  pain  as  well  as  by  work, 
seemed  inexhaustible,  and  he  was  prodigal 
of  time;  as  is  sometimes  the  case  with  the 
few  men  who  accomplish  much,  he  never 
seemed  to  be  in  a  hurry  and  was  always  at 
the  service  of  any  one,  doctor  or  layman, 
who  showed  genuine  interest  in  the  work. 

At  this  time  Dodd  entered  private  prac- 
tice and  opened  an  office  on  Beacon  Street. 
After  that  he  formed  an  alliance  with  Dr. 
Percy  Brown,  in  which  they  were  both 
happy  and  which  lasted  in  an  informal  way 
until  Dodd's  death,  though  they  practiced 
in  different  offices.  In  the  last  year  of  his 
life  he  bought  a  house  on  Marlborough 
Street  and  the  new  office  became  a  thriving 
place.  It  is  a  heart-breaking  pity  that  he  did 
not  live  to  enjoy  the  prosperity  which  was 

41 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

coming  to  him  inevitably  and  abundantly. 
It  was  coming  to  him  in  spite  of  his  de- 
lightful indifference  to  business-like  method. 
His  associates  tell,  between  laughter  and 
tears,  stories  of  his  easy-going  irregu- 
larity in  the  matter  of  making  reports  and 
sending  out  bills.  And  many  patients, 
whose  names  we  shall  never  know,  can 
bear  witness  that  in  one  aspect  of  his  treat- 
ment of  them  he  was  careless  and  forget- 
ful. The  printed  form  which  Dr.  Dodd's 
office  sent  to  patients  whose  sense  of  obli- 
gation was  tardy  is,  in  its  delicate  and  naively 
considerate  phrasing,  an  invitation  to  the 
delinquent  not  to  pay  at  all  if  payment  be 
not  convenient!  I  .have  wondered  whether 
this  absurdly  uncommercial  document  may 
not  have  proved  in  some  cases  practically 
effective,  like  the  "dun"  letter  of  the  Jap- 
anese who  threatened  the  debtor  "  with  some- 
thing that  would  cause  him  the  utmost 
surprise." 

If  Dodd's  way  of  conducting  his  affairs 
sometimes  troubled  his  friends,  it  was  be- 

42 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

cause  they  knew  that  his  days  of  work  might 
be  cut  short  by  death,  or,  what  would  have 
been  worse,  by  physical  incapacity.  One  of 
his  friends  and  patients,  the  head  of  a  great 
corporation,  threatened  to  send  an  efficiency 
expert  to  manage  Dodd's  business.  No  doubt 
a  business  man  would  have  made  larger 
profits  from  that  increasingly  busy  estab- 
lishment. It  must  not  be  thought,  however, 
that  Dodd  was  irresponsible,  as  men  of  genius 
are  said  to  be,  and  are  not.  He  had  been 
schooled  in  poverty,  and  others  were  de- 
pendent on  him.  It  was  one  of  the  contradic- 
tions of  his  character  that  though  he  was 
apparently  neglectful  of  the  mere  process  of 
getting  money,  yet  when  once  it  came  into 
his  hands  he  had  an  accurate  sense  of  its 
value.  When  in  the  last  days  he  had  to  put 
his  mind  on  affairs  as  he  should  leave  them 
to  others,  he  had  a  precise  knowledge  of 
everything  he  owned.  In  his  prosperous 
years  he  hugely  enjoyed  spending  money  for 
himself  and  others.  When  he  bought  his 
summer  house  at  Allerton,  the  transaction 

•43 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

was  for  all  the  world  like  that  of  a  boy  who, 
having  an  extra  dollar  to  use  as  he  pleases, 
comes  home  beaming  with  anew  jack-knife. 

In  September,  1909,  Dodd  was  appointed 
Instructor  in  the  Use  of  the  Roentgen  Ray 
at  the  Harvard  Medical  School,  and  later  his 
title  was  changed  to  Instructor  in  Roentgen- 
ology.  He  held  his  position  until  his  death. 
There  is  some  humor  in  the  story  of  his 
appointment.  When  the  position  of  Roent- 
genologist  was  created,  the  professors  at  the 
School  were  casting  about  impartially  for  the 
right  man  to  fill  it.  Dodd's  name,  like  other 
names,  was  known  to  them ;  but  his  profes- 
sional reputation,  and,  more  than  that,  the 
intense  affection  and  admiration  for  him, 
were  concentrated  in  the  Massachusetts 
General  Hospital.  From  the  doctors  there 
something  like  a  roar  of  "  We  want  Wal- 
ter!" came  to  the  bewildered  ears  of  the 
men  who  were  to  make  the  appointment, 
and  he  was,  as  it  were,  elected  by  acclama- 
tion. 

His  literary  contributions  to  his  subject 

44 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

were  almost  all  in  collaboration  with  other 
physicians.  He  was  often  urged  to  write  a 
book,  and  he  began  it;  certainly  his  exposition 
of  his  knowledge,  based  on  a  uniquely  inclu- 
sive experience,  would  have  been  invaluable. 
But  there  were  limits  even  to  his  energy, 
of  which  he  was,  moreover,  incontinently 
prodigal,  and  the  book  was  never  written. 
Other  doctors  making  special  investigations 
sought  his  assistance ;  he  threw  himself  into 
their  work,  and  he  never  quite  understood 
why  they  insisted  on  his  appearing  as  joint 
author.  When  Drs.  Bryant  and  Buck,  edi- 
tors of  "American  Practice  of  Surgery," 
applied  to  Dr.  Robert  B.  Osgood  for  the  arti- 
cle on  "Radiography/'  Dr.  Osgood  agreed 
to  make  the  contribution  on  condition  that 
Dodd  should  be  his  associate.  Their  study 
appears  in  Volume  I,  under  the  title :  "The 
Technique  of  Radiographic  Work  as  Ap- 
plied to  Surgery  and  the  Interpretation  of 
Radiographs.  By  W.  J.  Dodd  and  Dr.  Robt. 
B.  Osgood/' 

In  the  preface  to  "A  Clinical  Atlas :  Vari- 

45 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

ations  of  the  Bones  of  the  Hands  and  Feet/' 
the  author,  Dr.  Thomas  Dwight,  writes: 
"The  skiagraphs  were  taken  at  the  Massa- 
chusetts General  Hospital.  ...  I  cannot  ex- 
press too  strongly  my  indebtedness  to  Walter 
J.  Dodd,  the  head  of  the  X-ray  department, 
for  his  unfailing  patience,  his  valuable  help, 
and  constant  interest." 

Following  is  a  list  of  Dodd's  published 
work :  — 

"Treatment  of  Acute  Roentgen  Ray  Der- 
matitis. American  Journal  of  Roentgenology. 
N.S.  Vol.  i,  p.  430. 

With  R.  I.  Lee  and  E.  L.  Young:  "A 
Study  of  the  Effect  of  Rowing  on  the  Heart." 
Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal  (1915), 
pp.  499-502. 

WithT.  W.  Harmer:  "  Sources  of  Error 
in  the  Use  of  the  Stomach  Tube  for  Diag- 
nosis." Archives  of  International  Medicine. 
(Chicago,  1913.)  Vol.  xn,  p.  488. 

With  F.  B.  Talbot  and  H.  O.  Peterson: 
"  Experimental  Scorbutus  and  the  Roentgen- 
Ray  Diagnosis  of  Scorbutus."  Transactions 

46 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

American  Pediatry.  (Chicago,  1913.)  Vol. 
xxv,  pp.  195-212. 

"  Roentgen  Ray  in  Tuberculosis  of  Chil- 
dren." Boston  Medical  and  SurgicalJournaL 
(1914.)  Vol.  CLXXI,  p.  453. 

With  F.  B.  Talbot :  «  The  Roentgen-Ray 
Diagnosis  of  Scorbutus  in  Infancy."  Boston 
Medical  and  Surgical  Journal.  (1913.)  Vol. 
CLXIX,  p.  232. 

With  F.  B.  Talbot  and  Others :  "Experi- 
mental Scorbutus  and  the  X-Ray  Diagnosis 
of  Scorbutus."  American  Journal  of  Obstetrics. 
(New  York.  1913.)  Vol.  LXVIII,  p.  388. 

Hugh  Cabot  and  W.  J.  Dodd:  "The 
Diagnosis  of  Stone  in  the  Pelvic  Portion  of 
the  Ureter :  a  Preliminary  Report  on  Certain 
Limitations  of  Radiographic  Diagnosis,  and 
a  Suggested  Remedy."  Boston  Medical  and 
SurgicalJournaL  (1910.)  Vol. CLXIII, p. 85. 


DODD'S  life  was  not  all  work  and  suffering. 
No  man  ever  had  a  greater  capacity  for  joy ; 
and  aside  from  his  work,  which  was  for  him 
an  endless  entertainment,  he  had  deep  sources 
of  happiness.  In  1910  he  married  Margaret 
Lea.  She  was  a  nurse  at  the  Massachusetts 
General  Hospital  and  had  been  operating 
nurse  at  the  Stillman  Infirmary  in  Cambridge. 
That  marriage  was  a  union  of  brave  souls,  who 
faced  an  uncertain  future  together  and  found 
that  future  rich  beyond  expectation.  It  was 
impossible  to  predict  the  course  of  Dodd's 
infirmities;  any  day  he  might  become  inca- 
pacitated. That  he  lived  to  enjoy  glad  years 
of  work  is  due  in  large  measure  to  his  wife. 
That  she  was  a  professional  nurse  made  it 
possible  for  her  to  give  him  such  help  as  his 
sensitive  pride  could  not  have  accepted  from 
another  woman. 

Though  he  did  not  realize  it  and  would 

48 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

have  denied  it,  he  had  lived  too  closely  con- 
fined in  the  Hospital.  He  was  reluctant  to 
go  out  to  places  where  he  was  not  at  home, 
even  to  the  houses  of  his  friends.  He  shrank 
from  the  thought  of  being  watched  in  public, 
and  even  at  intimate  tables  he  suffered  from 
the  fear  of  some  mishap  in  handling  his  food, 
though,  indeed,  his  quiet  dexterity  was  mar- 
velous. It  never  occurred  to  him  that  he  was 
a  delight  at  a  dinner,  that  the  interest  which 
focused  on  him  was  of  the  finest  kind.  And 
he  hated  to  make  trouble  for  others  !  Often 
he  would  accept  an  invitation,  and  when  the 
day  came,  or  the  hour,  at  which  it  was  too 
late  to  capture  him,  he  would  tell  his  gentle 
and  transparent  lie,  if  possible  by  telephone, 
to  the  effect  that  some  work  which  he  had 
not  foreseen  would  prevent  his  having  the 
great  pleasure.  Sometimes  his  friends  car- 
ried him  off  in  spite  of  his  protests.  One  of 
his  friends  hit  on  the  happy  idea  of  wearing 
gloves  himself  in  a  restaurant.  This  happened 
to  strike  Walter's  sense  of  humor  and  put 
him  at  ease.  You  and  I  would  not  have  dared 

49 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

to  do  it;  but  the  instinct  of  that  now  dis- 
tinguished surgeon  was  right. 

To  one  public  place  he  went  often  —  the 
theatre.  In  the  early  days  of  his  suffering 
he  would  stand  up  in  the  rear,  so  that  he 
might  slip  out  easily  without  attracting  at- 
tention. Sometimes  he  would  drop  into  two 
or  three  theatres  in  the  course  of  an  eve- 
ning, restless  from  pain  and  hoping  to  find 
something  that  would  wholly  engross  his 
thoughts.  For  him  the  theatre  was  recrea- 
tion in  every  sense  of  the  word.  After  an 
especially  trying  day,  an  evening  at  the  play 
was  Mrs.  Dodd's  unfailing  prescription  to 
insure  a  sound  night's  sleep.  He  would  go 
to  bed  singing  the  tunes  of  a  musical  com- 
edy and  mimicking  the  actors. 

Next  to  his  home  and  the  Hospital  the 
association  which  brought  the  most  joy  into 
Dodd's  life  was  the  St.  Botolph  Club.  Sev- 
eral doctors  belonged  to  the  club,  and  it  was 
not  long  before  he  made  friends  among 
members  of  other  professions.  The  mem- 
bership of  the  club  represents  a  broad  va- 

50 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

riety  of  occupations,  professional  and  artis- 
tic, and  Dodd's  eager  interest  in  all  aspects 
of  life  found  new  opportunity  to  express 
itself. 

He  soon  came  to  be  taken  for  granted,  and 
when  he  dropped  in  for  lunch  or  dinner  he 
could  always  be  sure  of  finding  some  one 
who  as  a  matter  of  course  would  give  him 
the  slight  assistance  that  he  needed.  Some- 
times his  friends,  even  when  they  knew  he 
was  tired,  indeed,  when  they  suspected  he 
was  unusually  tired,  would  telephone  to 
Mrs.  Dodd  and  ask  her  to  insist  on  Walter's 
coming  to  the  club  for  dinner;  for  we  knew 
it  was  good  for  him.  There  never  was  a 
finer  illustration  of  the  true  value  of  a  club 
of  men,  and  no  man  ever  enjoyed  a  club 
more. 

At  special  celebrations  Dodd's  presence 
was  demanded,  and  after  dinner  he  was  al- 
ways called  on.  Perhaps  none  of  the  amus- 
ing things  he  said  would  be  especially  quot- 
able, but  the  image  of  his  humorous  face 
and  the  quaint  drollery  of  his  voice  will  not 

51 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

pass  from  the  memory  of  those  who  sat  at 
table  with  him.  Another  image  is  of  him 
sitting  in  an  armchair  with  his  finger  hooked 
through  the  handle  of  a  pewter  mug,  chat- 
ting. He  talked  easily  and  thoughtfully  on 
a  wide  range  of  subjects.  He  was  one  of 
few  men  who  have  thought  things  through 
and  come  to  a  philosophy  of  life.  And  he  was 
one  of  few  men  who  have  a  right  to  a  phi- 
losophy. 

It  was  not  until  after  his  death  that  some 
of  us  realized,  as  Mrs.  Dodd  has  made  us 
realize,  how  much  the  St.  Botolph  Club 
meant  to  him.  The  men  most  in  his  thoughts 
were  members  of  the  club,  some  of  whom, 
to  be  sure,  were  held  to  him  by  the  older 
bond  of  long  association  in  the  Hospital. 
Perhaps  a  club  deserves  to  be  defined,  in  the 
lines  of  the  old  comedy,  as  a  place  where 
fellows  get  together  and  think  they  are 
wonderful  fellows,  when  they're  not,  you 
know,  they  're  not.  But  some  of  the  mem- 
bers of  one  club  know  that  to  it  they  owe 
the  acquaintance,  and  from  that  the  friend- 

52 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

ship,  of  one  wonderful  man.  To  Dodd,  who, 
it  may  be,  was  too  indiscriminately  friendly 
and  sometimes  mistook  a  goose  for  a  swan, 
the  St.  Botolph  Club  was  a  wonderful  place. 
And  that  makes  it  so. 


VI 

IN  June,  1915,  Dodd  went  to  France  as 
Roentgenologist  with  the  first  Harvard  Med- 
ical Unit.  He  consulted  his  physicians  as 
to  whether  he  ought  to  go.  They  tried  to 
dissuade  him  on  several  grounds:  he  was 
doing  a  useful  work  in  Boston;  surely  he 
had  earned  the  comforts  of  home;  and  he 
ought  not  to  subject  himself  to  hardships 
the  severity  of  which  could  not  be  foreseen. 
These  arguments  did  not  interest  Dodd  in 
the  least;  they  did  not  answer  the  question; 
and  he  had  a  quietly  inflexible  way  of  dis- 
missing arguments  that  did  not  interest  him. 
The  question  was  simply  whether  he  would 
be  a  care,  a  burden,  to  other  members  of 
the  Unit.  His  disease  might  grow  worse, 
he  would  have  to  be  looked  after  a  little, 
and  that  might  put  his  friends,  Dr.  Lee  and 
Dr.  Porter,  to  some  inconvenience.  Would 
they  be  good  enough  to  let  him  go?  Would 

54 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

they  consent  to  grant  him  what  he  called 
"this  great  favor "?  He  talked  quietly  and 
calmly  about  the  inevitable  outcome  of  his 
malady  and  the  chances  of  his  lasting  through 
the  term  of  service  of  the  Unit.  Of  course, 
there  was  only  one  answer  to  the  question 
as  he  put  it. 

When  it  was  finally  decided  that  he  was 
to  go  to  France,  he  underwent  a  severe 
operation.  The  vehicle  that  took  him  from 
his  house  in  Allerton  to  the  train  for  New 
York  was  an  ambulance.  The  operation  had 
left  a  deep  wound,  still  unhealed,  in  his  arm 
and  breast.  Strange  figure  of  a  physician 
on  his  way  to  the  war  to  minister  to  others ! 
He  planned  to  convalesce  during  the  voy- 
age, and  as  it  turned  out  he  and  his  surgeon 
were  justified  in  taking  what  they  both 
called  a  gambler's  chance.  For  again  Dodd's 
amazing  power  of  recovery  asserted  itself. 
He  was  happy,  full  of  eagerness  for  the 
work,  and  also  full  of  the  sense  of  adven- 
ture. His  best  friends  and  his  wife  were 
members  of  the  Unit.  Other  members  had 

55 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

not  met  him  before,  but  they  soon  fell  in 
love  with  him.  This  crippled  man,  who  was 
always  shy  and  reserved,  became  the  ring- 
leader of  the  fun  on  the  ship. 

Naturally  there  was  much  confusion  and 
worry  in  the  course  of  getting  the  Unit  to 
its  hospital  in  France.  In  London  they  did 
not  know  where  they  were  going,  or  just 
what  were  their  relations  with  the  British 
authorities.  They  were  harassed  by  ques- 
tions of  equipment  and  supplies.  Dodd,  the 
one  man  whose  work  depended  on  his  appa- 
ratus, was  quite  serene  and  refused  to  worry 
about  it.  He  thought  out  as  well  as  he  could 
the  nature  of  his  work  and  the  problems  it 
might  involve. 

He  enjoyed  the  days  in  London,  his  native 
city,  and  went  out  exploring.  He  met  again 
the  London  Cockney,  whose  dialect  he  repro- 
duced in  a  way  that  a  professional  actor  might 
envy. 

When  they  finally  arrived  at  the  hospital 
camp  in  France,  Dodd  had  one  fixed  idea, 
that  no  concession  should  be  made  to  him 

56 


DODD  IN  LONDON,    1915 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

on  account  of  his  infirmities.  Everybody 
from  the  commanding  officer  to  the  order- 
lies would  have  done  anything  for  his  com- 
fort, but  he  obstinately  refused  any  special 
attentions.  He  had  a  return  of  his  old  sacro- 
iliac  trouble,  and  the  doctors  surreptitiously 
substituted  a  hospital  bed  for  his  canvas  cot. 
Dr.  Lee  says,  "Some  of  us  were  in  great  dis- 
favor for  the  brief  time  that  this  kindly  soul 
could  harbor  resentment  toward  any  one." 
Dodd  had  lent  his  sacro-iliac  corset,  without 
which  he  was  supposed  not  to  travel,  to  a  rich 
patient,  who  had  forgotten  to  return  it! 

The  doctors  in  the  Unit  were  nearly  all 
men  of  unusual  competence;  for  whatever 
may  be  the  intellectual  shortcomings  of 
Boston  and  Cambridge,  it  seems  to  us  lay- 
men— we  would  not  take  a  doctor's  word 
for  it !  —  that  thanks  to  the  Harvard  Medical 
School  and  the  M.  G.  H.,  our  physicians  are 
a  distinguished  body  of  men.  But  several 
of  them  testify  —  here  we  will  take  a  doc- 
tor's word  for  it! — that  most  of  the  work 
at  a  base  hospital  could  be  done  by  ordi- 

57 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

narily  competent  men  and  that  very  few  indi- 
viduals in  the  Unit  rose  above  the  average. 
Dodd  not  only  rose  above  the  average,  but 
was  unique.  He  was  the  one  indispensable 
member  of  the  Unit.  Beside  his  own  obvious 
limitations,  he  had  an  inferior  physical  equip- 
ment, and  his  assistants  were  untrained ;  but 
he  knew  his  work  with  a  kind  of  solitary 
knowledge  that  compelled  the  other  physi- 
cians to  consult  him,  to  accept  his  judgment. 
He  told  the  surgeons  what  to  do.  He  had 
seen  and  radiographed  more  cases  of  more 
kinds  of  injury  such  as  the  war  inflicted  than 
any  surgeon  in  the  Unit. 

His  apparatus  was  not  the  newest  and  best ; 
it  was  an  ordinary  field  outfit.  He  had  two 
imperfectly  trained  helpers.  ( In  a  few  weeks 
he  had  made  them  both  experts. )  But  he 
loved  difficulty.  He  rejoiced  in  his  imperfect 
equipment  because  it  recalled  to  him  the 
struggles  of  his  early  days  and  also  because 
he  wished  to  prove  that  good  work  in  Roent- 
genology  can  be  done  under  adverse  circum- 
stances. 

58 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

To  the  horror  of  his  assistants  he  took  his 
machine  to  pieces  and  rebuilt  it  with  his  own 
hands  in  his  own  fashion.  In  the  neighbor- 
ing hospital  the  X-ray  apparatus  was  modern, 
elaborate,  and  complete,  and  the  operators 
at  first  assumed  a  patronizing  attitude  toward 
Dodd's  equipment.  But  it  was  not  long  be- 
fore they  were  calling  him  in  to  get  them 
out  of  serious  difficulties.  And  in  a  short  time 
all  the  surrounding  hospitals  sent  emergency 
calls  for  Dodd  when  anything  went  wrong 
with  their  machines.  It  was  a  splendid  illus- 
tration of  the  fact  that  it  is  the  human  rather 
than  the  mechanical  equipment  that  counts. 

This  was  the  first  time  that  the  Roent- 
genologist  and  the  surgeon  worked  together 
in  immediate  cooperation.  With  convoys  of 
wounded  men  coming  into  the  hospital  every 
day,  there  was  no  time  to  make  X-ray  plates 
and  develop  them.  Dodd  made  his  exami- 
nations at  once  with  the  fluoroscope,  localized 
the  bullet  or  shell  fragment,  so  that  the  sur- 
geon could  do  his  work  without  delay. 

Once  the  surgeons  thought  that  they  had 

59 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

caught  the  infallible  Walter.  He  had  indi- 
cated the  position  of  a  foreign  body  in  a 
soldier's  knee.  On  exploration,  according  to 
Dodd's  marks,  as  they  thought,  the  surgeons 
found  nothing.  They  called  Dodd  and  he 
explained.  When  he  made  the  X-ray  exami- 
nation the  man  had  been  unable  to  straighten 
his  leg.  Under  ether  the  leg  had  relaxed,  thus 
shifting  the  position  of  Dodd's  marks.  If  the 
surgeons  would  go  lower,  just  here,  they 
would  find  the  object.  And  they  did.  It  was 
a  simple  and  obvious  idea,  as  Dr.  Porter 
says,  to  operate  on  a  limb  in  the  same  posi- 
tion in  which  it  had  been  when  it  was  X-rayed ; 
yet  none  of  the  rest  of  them  had  thought 
of  it. 

Dr.  Lee  and  another  physician  visiting  a 
neighboring  hospital  were  asked  to  look  at 
the  radiographs  of  an  unusual  case  of  bony 
tumor.  It  had  been  decided  to  amputate  the 
limb.  The  visiting  doctors  asked  permission 
to  submit  the  photographs  to  Dodd.  He 
recognized  a  rare  form  of  tumor  in  which 
amputation  is  not  indicated,  but  which  calls 

60 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

for  local  eradication.  The  surgeons  in  the 
neighboring  hospital  took  Dodd's  advice,  and 
the  soldier's  limb  was  saved. 

Dodd's  colleagues  agree  that  he  more 
than  any  or  all  of  them  determined  the  ex- 
cellent standard  of  their  work. 

The  months  in  France  were  the  most  in- 
teresting, and  in  spite  of  the  horror,  the  hap- 
piest in  Dodd's  life.  He  was  elated  by  the 
knowledge,  which  even  his  modesty  could 
not  deny,  that  the  surgeons  depended  on  his 
skill,  that  every  minute  of  his  long  hours 
of  work  contributed  to  the  professional  suc- 
cess of  his  friends  and  to  the  well-being  of 
wounded  men.  His  wife  and  his  associates, 
Dr.  Porter,  Dr.  Lee,  and  Dr.  Hopkins,  made 
him  take  care  of  himself,  and  for  the  sake 
of  his  work  and  for  fear  of  breaking  down 
in  a  situation  in  which  he  felt  himself  under 
deep  obligation  he  exhibited  an  unusual  do- 
cility ;  he  even  consented  to  eat  at  regular 
times  what  he  was  told  to  eat ;  and  he  gained 
in  weight.  Moreover,  though  no  man  was 
ever  more  sensitive  to  horror,  he  took  a  sane 

61 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 

and  serene  view  of  the  war.  He  was  Eng- 
lish and  American  and  unequivocally  pro- 
Ally.  But  he  could  not  shut  his  broad  mind 
to  the  good  side  of  Germany  and  the  Ger- 
mans, and  he  never  forgot  that  the  man  who 
discovered  the  X-ray  was  a  German.  Dr. 
Lee  has  finely  said  that  Dodd  had  a  wide 
visual  field  for  all  goodness  and  beauty,  but 
had  a  congenital  blind  spot  for  the  disagreeable 
qualities  of  men  and  things.  Dodd's  sever- 
est comment  on  a  man  whom  he  did  not 
approve  was  silence.  But  those  who  suffered 
the  rebuke  of  his  patient  silence  were  very 
few. 

He  returned  to  Boston  in  October,  1915. 
His  general  condition  seemed  better  than  it 
had  been  for  years.  His  experience  in  France 
had  been  stimulating  and  had  increased  his 
professional  knowledge.  To  the  delight  of 
his  friends  he  had  gathered  and  could  repro- 
duce more  of  the  humor  and  the  pathos  of 
the  Tommy  than  any  other  member  of  the 
Unit.  In  1916  he  seemed  to  be  very  well. 
And  he  was  full  of  plans ;  he  was  preparing 

62 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

to  buy  the  house  on  Marlborough  Street  and 
increase  the  number  of  his  associates.  And 
he  did  it.  Nothing  but  the  friendly  Arch- 
enemy could  stop  him.  During  the  summer 
he  grew  worse.  Dr.  Porter  says  that  a  sud- 
den infection  with  chills  developed  and  that 
the  epitrochlear  and  axillary  glands  quickly 
enlarged.  He  lost  weight  and  had  continu- 
ous fever.  Yet  in  spite  of  his  illness  he  bought 
the  house  on  Marlborough  Street  and  he  was 
in  the  midst  of  equipping  his  offices  and  set- 
tling his  apartment  when  the  end  came.  A 
persistent  cough  and  increasing  weakness 
meant,  as  he  and  his  physicians  suspected 
and  as  autopsy  finally  established,  that  his 
disease  had  made  its  way  into  his  lungs. 
Almost  to  the  last  he  preserved  his  lucidity 
of  mind  and  attended  to  the  making  of  his 
will  and  other  affairs.  Then  he  passed  into 
a  mild  delirium ;  and  it  is  characteristic  of 
him  that  in  his  delirium  his  thoughts  re- 
curred to  the  days  in  France,  —  not  to  the 
horrors,  but  to  the  happy  hours,  to  the  hu- 
mors, to  the  "joy  of  the  love  of  men." 

63 


WALTER  JAMES  DODD 


He  died  on  December  18, 

In  his  will  he  left  one  hundred  dollars  to 
the  X-ray  department  of  the  Massachusetts 
General  Hospital,  "with  the  hope  that  oth- 
ers who  can  afford  more  will  give  according 
to  their  means."  There  should  be,  and  there 
will  be,  at  the  Massachusetts  General  Hos- 
pital a  new  laboratory  of  Roentgenology. 
And  over  the  door  will  be  written  :  "  The 
Walter  James  Dodd  Memorial." 


THE  END 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .   S    .   A 


